Through PM at a Jpop BT tracker I got word that an upload of great importance to me could be facilitated through the previously mentioned network. Having heard of it, but never used it before, I knew partly of its potential; however, having had no reason to use it before, it had slipped under my radar. But now that fruits oh so sweet to me dangled before my eyes, I felt compelled, urged, to seek out more information. Indeed, I was overjoyed when I discovered that through my ISP I had access!

Alas! My joy was shortened, as I discovered that due to the great amounts of data transferred across this previously mentioned network, not everything could be retained on the local server. But a glimpse of hope still existed. I knew of options. Commercial options.

Having long suffered the path of the credit-cardless, I knew that there still might some roads were open, even though most gate-keepers demanded the taste of plastic. I searched, and I found. And so it came to be that I purchased my first service over the intarwebs.

But! Back to the issue at hand. Having too much data, and too many files large enough to make splitting up for CD-Rs incredibly unwieldly, I decided the only way forward was to acquire another external drive. The options were many, and the price to size ratio had roughly doubled since I bought the previous external drive. I had long thought about buying a separate drive and enclosure, to ease transition to even bigger drives, or even backing up and buying new drives. Looking at the options, the allure of the all-in-one drive was strong... Both the Iomega MiniMax and the LaCie Porsche drives appealed strongly to me, with the Mac Mini-like appearance of the MiniMax, and the LaCie being stackable with the Porsche I already have. But I had already been burned (pun intended) by an Iomega CDRW-burner that gave up one day. And I'm of the conviction that a system where all parts function the same is a system with a fundamental flaw (points to those who can spot the movie quote), which worked against the LaCie.

In the end, I chose what I had been thinking about since the start: a separate drive and enclosure. For the drive, a Samsung Spinpoint 300GB (around 280 formatted, I guess), and for the enclosure, a Mapower KC31C1. Both relatively well-reviewed products.

I haven't recieved them yet, but when I do, I will be faced with one of those eternal problems: what to name it? I got my first external harddrive at a time when I was extremely into a Japanese band called Do As Infinity (now disbanded), so I named it Tomiko after the lead singer. But I'm not really that madly obsessed with any band at the moment, apart from TM Network, but none of their names really fit except for "Takashi", perhaps. Well, I still have some time to think about it before it gets here.